Bleed
by IKillZombiesForFun
Summary: No food, No ammo and a Tank  First Fanfic  Coarse language and violence and Character Death


Bleed

The monster stood ten feet tall. Bellows started deep in its belly and came out its throat as a low growl.

Coach and Nick were nowhere to be found. Ellis lay behind me, his leg twisted at an unnatural angle, clinging to consciousness.

I reloaded my automatic, low on ammo, but I wasn't going down without a fight. I raised the gun and aimed as the huge hunk of muscle started toward me.

The sun rose and cast deep shadows across the dead and decaying world. A few rays snuck in through the slots of the safe room door where Ellis stood watch. I stood at the table next to him. Ammo boxes littered the table but most were empty. Our medical supplies had about run out as well. Coach lay on the only mattress. Nick helped him address his wounds.

Ellis' stomach growled. He put a hand over his stomach. I met his gaze. His blue eyes had become dull and he was pale. His hands shook slightly as he held his shotgun. He was hungry, we all were.

We had arrived at the safe house about two weeks ago. It was dark, we were tired. Ellis was chatting away as usual, trying to lighten the mood. He hadn't seen the witch until he tripped and fell into her lap. She shrieked in surprise. Nick immediately opened fire on her. She forgot about Ellis in her lap and jumped up after Nick. She chased him as he ran backwards, emptying an entire clip. He backed up against a wall. The witch pounced and Nick went down.

"Molotov!" Coach tossed the Molotov and smiled as it cracked open over the witch's head. Fire rained down upon her. She switched targets. Coach was down in seconds.

In a panic, I grabbed the closest weapon to me, a fry pan, and started to smash the infected woman's skull in. She cried out and as a dying protest, dug her talons into my leg. She fell dead at my feet.

Nick hobbled over to me, holding his side. I helped Coach up, he wasn't looking too good.

Ellis walked over and helped support Coach, unharmed.

We arrived at the safe room shortly afterwards, Nick lashing out at Ellis every chance he got.

Nick stitched up my leg as I examined Coach's wounds. Some were bad, but nothing life threatening. Nick decided it was best we stay at the safe room a while and heal. Our food and medical supplies had run out within the first week.

Ellis broke eye contact first and gazed back out the door. I knew what he was looking at. Across the street was a giant supermarket full of food, and probably infected. We had not dared to risk a trip over until we were healed enough to run and fight.

Coach and Nick joined us by the door.

"I say we send Ellis over there first to check for witches," Nick said and smirked. Ellis looked at the floor. Nick had been making rude comments since we arrived to safety.

"Stop it, Nick!" Coach snapped.

I distributed the last of the ammo and health supplies. "Don't shoot unless it's a boomer or spitter," I instructed. "Use melee, we don't have hardly any ammo left."

"I'm hungry, let's go!" Nick kicked open the door.

We started across the street, it was empty. Something wasn't right. The electricity in the store was out. Coach knocked out the sliding glass door with his bat and we ducked inside. We waited for a horde of infected, but none came.

"Odd," I muttered.

"Ellis, it's your lucky day!" Nick punched him hard in the shoulder.

Ellis looked down. "I said I was sorry..." he muttered quietly. Ever since the night with the witch, he had grown very quiet.

"Doesn't fix it, Overalls," Nick said.

Ellis clenched his fist and glared up at the older man. "It was an accident!" he cried.

"No, it was carelessness! You weren't paying attention and startled the witch and yet, we're the ones that had to pay for it as you walk away unharmed." Nick stormed off.

Ellis hung his head and trudged in the opposite direction.

"Ellis..." I muttered. I wanted to comfort him but Nick did have a valid point.

Coach patted me on the back. "Let's just get some food."

The store seemed untouched by the Apocalypse. The shelves were fully stocked and neat and tidy. We gorged on whatever we could get our hands on. Food had never tasted so good in my life.

"Don't forget to pack some to bring back," Coach reminded. He stuffed another doughnut in his mouth.

Nick walked up eating a bag of chips. "Why don't we just stay here? Food, water, a bathroom and no infected." he said.

"That don't sound like a bad idea," Coach gave a quick laugh.

I started to chew on my bottom lip. "Something doesn't feel right," I muttered. "I mean, when we got here zombies littered the streets, where did they go?" I asked.

Nick shrugged. "As long as they aren't here, we shouldn't worry."

A loud clamor from the back of the store made us all jump. Ellis came rushing towards us.

Coach lowered his baseball bat. "Boy..." he started in a warning tone.

Ellis fell at our feet, fighting for breath. "Ta..." he coughed.

"What?" I asked.

"Ta.. Tan.." Ellis struggled to catch his breath.

"Spit it out, kid!" Nick snapped.

Ellis glared up at him. "Tank!"

As if on cue, a loud roar come from the back of the store followed by the sound of crumbling brick and protesting metal.

"You led it right to us!" Nick yelled.

I bent down and helped Ellis up.

The ground shook violently. A shelving unit from one of the aisles flew towards us.

"Look out!" Coach yelled.

Nick wrapped his arm around my waist and we fell to the ground. Coach thudded next to us.

The shelves crashed into the front windows. Glass rained down upon us.

"Ellis!" I cried.

His body lay in the middle of the street, buried under debris from the shelves. I could see blood starting to run down his face.

"Oh, shit!" Coach cried.

The ground shook more violently. The beast finally made his way into the store. He let out a terrifying growl and grabbed another set of shelves.

"Run!" Nick yelled. He grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the store. Coach followed behind us, shooting the monster.

I patted my pocket and realized I had lost my gun in the chaos. "Nick..."

He handed me his AK-47 and pulled out his hidden Desert Eagle. "Run and shoot!"

Gunshots rang throughout the air. The tank began to grow frustrated and slammed his meaty fists into the ground. He grabbed a chunk of concrete and raised it above his head, his roars echoed up and down the street.

"Goddamnit! Run!" Nick cried.

We ceased fire and turned to run for it. The safe house was still a hundred yards away.

"We're not gonna make it!" I screamed over the Tank's bellows.

The Tank howled in pain. The sound of him dropping the concrete was deafening. The beast turned and roared as a few gunshots sounded.

"What the hell?" Coach muttered. We stopped running.

The tank took off running in the opposite direction of us.

"Die you son of a bitch!"

Ellis shot at the beast as it came towards him. He led the Tank down the street.

"That kid's gonna get himself killed." Nick muttered before running after him.

I followed Nick and opened fire on the monster's back. It continued to chase Ellis down the street.

Nick caught up to Ellis. "You got guts, kid," I heard Nick yell.

The tank rose his huge arms and bellowed.

I reloaded and fired. "Leave them alone!" I screamed. Coach stood at my side.

The tank turned for a moment. The muscles in his arms rippled and tensed against the bullets. Blood dripped from the mutated body. I froze momentarily when I met those yellow eyes.

Nick and Ellis joined us.

"Ellis, get Ro to the safe house!" Nick yelled over the noise. "We'll lead the tank away and meet up with you when we can!"

"But..." Ellis started.

"THIS IS NO TIME TO ARGUE! JUST DO IT!"

Nick and Coach took off down the street, firing at the great beast.

Ellis grabbed my hand. "C'mon, let's go!" he cried.

The tank didn't follow Nick and Coach down the street. He glared down at me as I followed Ellis. He let out a roar of fury and slammed the concrete. It crumbled and the monster picked up a huge chunk and threw it over his shoulder. I heard Nick cry out.

I kept running, the safe room was so close. Just a little further.

The tank let out another cry of rage.

Something blocked the now high sun.

"Ro!"

I was shoved to the ground. My head hit, hard. I blinked away tears. Ellis stood over me. I looked up and blinked and in that instant he was ripped away in a flash of black and silver. Glass shattered somewhere close by. There was the sound of metal crunching. A loud crack and splintering sound drowned out all the other noise. Ellis' scream soon followed.

The ground shook and I heard loud curses. I wiped some of the tears away from my eyes. My vision was blurred and the world was tilting but I could still make out a tiny white blob waving his arms. The tank turned from me and chased it.

"Nick..." I muttered weakly. I felt nauseous and put my head down and closed my eyes, waiting for the spinning to go away.

I could hear screaming off in the distance. Who was screaming? Why were they screaming? The tank was gone, there was no reason to scream. My eyes snapped open.

"Ellis!" I tried to yell, the fog clearing from my mind. I sat up and looked in the direction of the screams.

A silver Dodge Dakota lay twisted and bent almost out of recognition on the side of the road. Fire leaped from the broken gas tank, glass littered the street. Ellis was partially pinned under the destroyed metal.

"Ellis!" I screamed and ran to him.

By the time I reached him, he had stopped screaming. I knelt beside him. His clothes were torn and burned. All his exposed skin was bruised and bloody, shards of glass sticking out everywhere. His lower half was trapped partially under the cab of the truck.

"Don't worry, I'm gonna get you out of this," I muttered quietly.

Ellis groaned in pain. "My leg," he said in a raspy voice.

I could hear the tank's angry growls off in the distance. I closed my eyes and prayed it wouldn't come back.

I examined the truck and Ellis quickly. The truck was balanced precariously and looked easy to roll. I gave it a small shove and it rocked easily. Ellis whimpered.

"It's alright, El, just hold on," I put both hands on the ruined truck and took a few deep breaths, one good shove and it would roll into the ditch, one bad shove and it could roll back and kill Ellis. "One... two...three!" I threw my body against the truck. With a groan, it rocked but didn't roll. It started to roll back.

"Shit!" I slammed into the truck with all the strength I could muster. The truck rolled and seemed to teeter for a second before it lost it's balance and toppled into the ditch. I rubbed my throbbing shoulder and winced.

"Rochelle..." Ellis muttered weakly.

I dropped beside him. "It's alright, hun." I said quietly. I picked a few shards of glass out of his arm.

That's when I saw it. I felt sick.

Ellis' left leg was twisted at an unnatural angle. His pant leg was dark red and dripping with blood. I looked away and looked at his face. His blue eyes was glazed over and seemed to focus on nothing. He was losing consciousness.

"No, no, no! Ellis stay with me!" I gently tapped the side of his face.

The loud growl made my blood run cold. I dared a glance over my shoulder.

The tank from earlier stood on the roof of the supermarket only a hundred yards away. It raised it's bloody arms high into the air and then slammed them down with brute force. The roof of the store collapsed and the tank fell inside.

I jumped to my feet and grabbed the AK that Nick had given me. I could hear the beast throwing items around in the store, growing frustrated. There was less than 20 bullets left in the clip.

"Shit!" I scrambled in my pocket for the extra few bullets I had stored there and fumbled to put them into my gun.

The tank burst out of the store and glared at me.

Nick and Coach were nowhere to be found, I began to fear the worst.

Ellis whimpered behind me.

I raised my gun as the hunk of muscle started toward me.

"You son of a bitch!" I yelled at it. I aimed down the sights of the gun, waiting for it to get closer.

The beast limped now. Blood was pouring out of its massive body. It was covered in bullet holes and slashed wounds. How he was still alive, I didn't know.

"Just a little closer," I whispered.

The tank lumbered forward. He caught sight of the gun in my hands and let out a roar of pure rage. It started running toward me.

I opened fire on the tank. It swung at me. I ducked under the giant arm and started to run. The tank let out another loud roar.

I turned and ran backwards, holding the trigger down.

The monster turned and glared at me with its decaying flesh and rotted eyes. A bullet hit the tank in the cheek. Flesh and bone splattered and flew through the air. The tank screamed and sprinted toward me.

_Click, click, click._

My heart started to pound loudly in my ears. The worst had happened. I had run out of ammo.

The tank swung out again.

I felt weightless as I flew backwards. The pavement wasn't as hard as I had expected but the air was still forced from my lungs. I gasped and fought for breath. The tank rose his arms above his head and growled to the sky.

Ellis stirred slightly across the street.

The tank took notice. He dropped his muscular arms and let out another cry of rage. He turned his back to me.

"Ellis!" I gasped. I grabbed the long forgotten adrenaline shot from my belt. With renewed strength, I got up and tossed the useless gun aside. The fire ax was removed from my back and I was running.

Blood and gore flew everywhere. The tank let out protesting growls. I ducked and dodged all of its pitiful attacks. I swung and gave it one last blow to the throat. The tank let out a sick gurgling sound, its yellow eyes rolled back into its head and he slumped to the ground.

I gave a few extra hacks to make sure he really was dead.

The adrenaline was wearing off. I dropped the ax and fell to my knees. Flesh and blood covered my arms, clothing and face, but I didn't care. The thing was dead.

"Hello?" I heard a familiar voice call.

I weakly raised my arms and waved them slowly. "Over here!" I called.

Nick and Coach appeared from around the back of the store. Coach was supporting Nick, the two moved slowly.

"Rochelle!" Nick took a few steps on his own until his legs gave out. He landed on his knees in front of me and wrapped his arms tightly around me.

Coach limped over to the giant dead body. "Damn," he said, sounding impressed.

Nick released me and looked me over. "Are you alright?" he asked. He reached up and picked a chunk of flesh out of my hair.

"I'm fine, just a little beat up," I said. "What happened to you guys?"

Nick stood, shaking, and helped me up. "The bitch hit me when he threw that concrete over his shoulder. We kept trying to lure him away from you two. Once we finally did, he got us in a corner and got a few good punches in. We heard yelling and the tank took off." Nick said.

I didn't hear the last few things Nick said. "Ellis!" I cried. In the excitement, I had completely forgotten. I took off in his direction.

I fell next to him. His eyes were closed and he didn't move. Nick and Coach joined me. I cradled Ellis' head and put two fingers to his neck.

"What happened to him?" Nick asked.

I sighed when I found a pulse, a weak one, but still a pulse. I wiped some of the blood from his face. "The tank threw a truck, it was heading toward me... Ellis shoved me out of the way..." I blinked away the tears that had formed in my eyes. I began to pick the glass out of the kid's arms.

Coach knelt down by Ellis' bad leg. "Hey, Suit, come help me with this!" he said.

Nick left my side and walked over to Coach.

"Hold down his other leg, we don't need him kickin'." Coach instructed. Nick leaned onto Ellis' good leg. Coach started to roll up Ellis' pant leg to inspect the damage.

Ellis' eyes opened with a yelp. He tried to pull away. I held his shoulders tightly as Nick put all his weight on Ellis' good leg to prevent the younger man from kicking.

"Ahh, let go!" Ellis cried. He had grown abnormally pale and tears formed in the corners of his eyes.

"Shh, it's alright," I said softly. I met Nick's dark green eyes. They reflected the fear I was feeling.

Ellis continued to struggle but his attempts to get free weakened.

"Aw shit!" Coach sighed. "It's worse than I thought," he muttered.

I broke eye contact with Nick and looked at the damage. My body went completely numb.

Instead of a clean break, the bones in Ellis' leg had shattered. Fragments of bone ripped through the skin and were exposed. Blood poured out of the open wounds. It barely looked like a leg anymore.

I covered my mouth and closed my eyes, willing myself not to puke. That very well could have been me, it was a miracle Ellis was still alive.

"There's no way a splint will fix that," Nick muttered, he had grown pale as well.

Coach shook his head sadly. "I've seen a lot of broken bones in my day, but nothin' this bad. Something like this needs surgery."

"So now what?" I asked. Ellis' breathing had grown very heavy. He hadn't said much and it worried me.

"There's nothing we can do..." Nick muttered. He looked down and sighed heavily, almost with guilt.

The tears were coming in rivers down my face now. "We're just gonna let him die?" I sobbed.

"What else can we do, Ro?" Nick asked. He avoided eye contact.

Coach patted me gently on the back.

I hugged Ellis tightly. Ellis was so young; he didn't deserve anything that has happened to him these past few months. He should have been the first one on those helicopters, not out here, giving his life to save me.

"Why did you have to be a hero?" I whispered softly.

Ellis stirred in my arms. "Ro?" he said quietly.

I looked at him. He was looking up at me, his lively blue eyes were dull. He was fading fast.

"I'm sorry," He said weakly.

"No, no, no," I hugged him again. "Don't be sorry, why are you sorry?"

"I startled the witch; I led the Tank to you guys..." He coughed violently.

I looked up at the two men standing over me. Nick was chewing on his lower lip, avoiding eye contact still and Coach looked down at Ellis and frowned. I looked back at Ellis.

"You saved my life," I choked out in between tears, my throat closing up. "Thank you."

Ellis gave me a weak smile and then he was gone.

I hugged him tightly and burst into sobs.

Nick knelt beside me and put a hand on my shoulder. He looked down at Ellis.

"You know all that stuff I said, kid? I didn't mean it." Nick said softly. He sighed deeply and looked away.

"We're gonna miss ya, young'n," Coach said. He put a hand on my shoulder and the other on Nick's. We looked up at him. There was silent communication but we knew what we had to do.

Nick got up and followed Coach into the store. They came out a minute later with shovels. They start to dig on the side of the road, close to where I continued to sit with Ellis' head in my lap.

I closed Ellis' eyes and looked at him. Except for the blood splattered on his face, he looked peaceful, like he was just taking a long nap.

Nick came up beside me, he was covered with dirt and mud.

I gave Ellis one last hug before I let Nick pick Ellis up.

Once Ellis was buried we stood and had a moment of silence for our fallen survivor. Coach said a prayer as Nick carved Ellis' name into the crude cross we had made.

After we were done saying good bye, we gathered our supplies and decided to keep moving. A silence hung thick in the air.

I closed my eyes and sighed. "Thank you, Ellis, you won't be forgotten."


End file.
